Count Stephen to Adele, his
sweetest and most amiable wife, to his dear children, and to all his vassals of
all ranks - his greeting and blessing.
You may be
very sure, dearest, that the messenger whom I sent to give you pleasure, left
me be before Antioch safe and unharmed, and through God's grace in the greatest
prosperity. And already at that time, together with all the chosen army of
Christ, endowed with great valor by Him, we had been continuously advancing for
twenty-three weeks toward the home of our Lord Jesus. You may know for certain,
my beloved, that of gold, silver and many other kind of riches I now have twice
as much your love had assigned to me when I left you. For all our princes with
the common consent of the whole army, against my own wishes, have made me up to
the present time the leader, chief and director of their whole expedition.
You
have certainly heard that after the capture of the city of Nicaea we fought a
great battle with the Turks and by God's aid conquered them. Next we conquered
for the Lord all Romania. And we learned that there was a certain Turkish
prince Assam, dwelling in Cappadocia; thither we directed our course. All his
castles we conquered by force and compelled him to flee to a certain very
strong castle situated on a high rock. We also gave the land of that Assam to
one of our chiefs and in order that he might conquer the above-mentioned Assam,
we left there with him many soldiers of Christ. Thence, continually following
the wicked Turks, we drove them through the midst of Armenia, as far as the
great river Euphrates. Having left all their baggage and beasts of burden on
the bank, they fled across the river into Arabia.
The
bolder of the Turkish soldiers, indeed, entering Syria, hastened by forced
marches night and day, in order to be able to enter the royal city of Antioch
before our approach. The whole army of God learning this gave due praise and
thanks to the Lord. Hastening with great joy to the aforesaid chief city of
Antioch, we besieged it and very often had many conflicts there with the Turks;
and seven times with the citizens of Antioch and with the innumerable troops
coming to its aid, whom we rushed to meet, we fought with the fiercest courage,
under the leadership of Christ. And in all these seven battles, by the aid of
the Lord God, we conquered and most assuredly killed an innumerable host of
them. In those battles, indeed, and in very many attacks made upon the city,
many of our brethren and followers were killed and their souls were borne to
the joys of paradise.
We
found the city of Antioch very extensive, fortified with incredible strength
and almost impregnable. In addition, more than 5,000 bold Turkish soldiers had
entered the city, not counting the Saracens, Publicans, Arabs, Tulitans,
Syrians, Armenians and other different races of whom an infinite multitude had
gathered together there. In fighting against these enemies of God and of our
own we have, by God's grace, endured many sufferings and innumerable evils up
to the present time. Many also have already exhausted all their resources in
this very holy passion. Very many of our Franks, indeed, would have met a
temporal death from starvation, if the clemency of God and our money had not
saved them. Before the above-mentioned city of Antioch indeed, throughout the
whole winter we suffered for our Lord Christ from excessive cold and enormous
torrents of rain. What some say about the impossibility of bearing the heat of
the sun throughout Syria is untrue, for the winter there is very similar to our
winter in the west.
When
truly Caspian [Bagi Seian], the emir of Antioch-that is, prince and
lord-perceived that he was hard pressed by us, he sent his son Sensodolo [Chems
Eddaulah] by name, to the prince who holds Jerusalem, and to the prince of
Calep, Rodoam [Rodoanus], and to Docap [Deccacus Iba Toutousch], prince of
Damascus. He also sent into Arabia to Bolianuth and to Carathania to Hamelnuth.
These five emirs with 12,000 picked Turkish horsemen suddenly came to aid the
inhabitants of Antioch. We, indeed, ignorant of all this, had sent many of our
soldiers away to the cities and fortresses. For there are one hundred and
sixty-five cities and fortresses throughout Syria which are in our power. But a
little before they reached the city, we attacked them at three leagues' distance
with 700 soldiers, on a certain plain near the "Iron Bridge." God,
however, fought for us, His faithful, against them. For on that (lay, fighting
in the strength that God gives, we conquered them and killed an innumerable
multitude--God continually fighting for us-and we also carried back to the army
more than two hundred of their heads, in order that the people might rejoice on
that account. The emperor of Babylon also sent Saracen messengers to our army
with letters and through these he established peace and concord with us.
I
love to tell you, dearest, what happened to us during Lent. Our princes had
caused a fortress to he built before a certain gate which was between our camp
and the sea. For the Turks daily issuing from this gate, killed some of our men
on their way to the sea. The city of Antioch is about five leagues' distance
from the Sea. For this reason they sent the excellent Bohemond and Raymond,
count of St. Gilles, to the sea with only sixty horsemen, in order that they
might bring mariners to aid in this work. When, however, they were returning to
us with those mariners, the Turks collected an army, fell suddenly upon our two
leaders and forced them to a perilous In that unexpected flight we lost more
than 500 of our foot-soldiers--to the glory of God. Of our horsemen, however,
we lost only two, for certain.
On
that same day truly, in order to receive our brethren with joy, and ignorant of
their misfortunes, we went out to meet them. When, however, we approached the
above-mentioned gate of the city, a mob of horsemen and foot-soldiers from
Antioch, elated by the victory which they had won, rushed upon us in the same
manner. Seeing these, our leaders sent to the camp of the Christians to order
all to be ready to follow us into battle. In the meantime our men gathered
together and the scattered leaders, namely, Bohemond and Raymond, with the
remainder of their army came up and narrated the great misfortune which they
had suffered.
Our
men, full of fury at these most evil tidings, prepared to die for Christ and,
deeply grieved for their brethren, rushed upon the sacrilegious Turks. They,
enemies of God and of us, hastily fled before us and attempted to enter their
city. But by God's grace the affair turned out very differently: for, when they
wanted to cross a bridge built over the great river Moscholum, we followed them
closely as possible, killed many before they reached the bridge, forced many
into the river, all of whom were killed, and we also slew many upon the bridge
and very many at the narrow entrance the gate. I am telling you the truth, my
beloved, and you may be very certain that in this battle we killed thirty
emirs, that is princes, and three hundred other Turkish nobles, not counting
the remaining Turks and pagans. Indeed, the number of Turks and Saracens killed
is reckoned at 1,230, but of ours we did not lose a single man.
While
on the following day (Easter) my chaplain Alexander was writing this letter in
great haste, a party of our men lying in wait for the Turks, fought a successful
battle with them and killed sixty horse-men, whose heads they brought to the
army.
These
which I write to you, are only a few things, dearest, of the many which we have
done, and because I am not able to tell you, dearest, what is in my mind, I charge
you to do right, to carefully watch over your land, to do your duty as you
ought to your children and your vassals. You will certainly see me just as soon
as I possibly return to you.
Farewell.
(Before Antioch, March 29,1098)
